The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Sooo... THE ETERNAL ONES is one of those books that's been sitting on my shelf, at the bottom of my to-read pile. I'd started it way back in August when I'd first gotten it, buuut... Ten pages in and it hadn't really grabbed my attention. There was just something a little off about this book. But first... what I liked:



The concept of this one was pretty unique. The religious aspect sort of mixed together with reincarnation and true love was very eclectic and different. In a good way. And there were a lot of other little things that I liked about the characters and their lives that made this very different world almost realistic. The characters themselves held their own and the world-building was very interesting. This whole society of people with past lives trying to find each other had my interest piqued. There were some parts that were very creepy and anything that can get a rise out of me is applauded.



However...



I didn't like that there were some religious issues that seemed to fall through. I don't particularly like it when authors try to squash a whole bunch of religions together and call it harmonious. It's anything but. One minute you have the antagonist chastising the world for it's minute flaws and the next you have Haven, the protagonist sleeping around with this guy she only just found and realized is her lost soul mate. It was just... very confusing. I didn't quite understand the moral of the story. And the characters annoyed me a lot. Especially Haven. She has trust issues. She was giving me whip lash with how many times she'd trust Iain and then distrust him. Sometimes it wouldn't just be every other day, but several times during ONE day.



I'm not sure if I'll be picking up the sequel whenever it comes out. Still have a lot of mixed feelings about this one.



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Won this one through First Reads.

Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Officially, I can't really say much until WOLFSBANE's final copy is released in July, but unofficially, I will say that it was quite good.

I'll make this review short and sweet really. There were several things I really despised about this sequel. For one, the constant story-telling without the added demonstration. The first half of the book is really just the Searchers filling everyone in on their history and occasionally discussing how they're going to go about saving Calla's pack. Add in some tension between the Searchers and the Guardians that isn't as sparked as it could have been and you have even more talking. There was only one action sequence, short-lived, right in the middle of all this talking and even that seemed kind of pointless at best. I also didn't like some of the characters' wishy-washiness. Calla couldn't make up her mind about being with Shay and being happy or writhing in guilt over leaving Ren. This is understandable to a degree, but when she drags Shay along, back and forth, through every mood swing, one must wonder if she is really worthy of Shay's love. Personally, I wouldn't mind it if she ended up with Ren, but I would like it if she'd set her mind on something. As Alpha she needs to be stable and stick with her commitments, not just constantly banter back and forth. Loyalties need to be made. And even Shay annoyed me at times with how much testosterone he insisted on injecting into their interactions. He became very territorial over her and a little pushy about their relationship. But near the end I kind of learned to appreciate this. So this was an interesting change of character that still has me reeling.

What I did love about WOLFSBANE? The second half. If the first half was all talk then the second half was pretty much straight to the action, which I appreciated. This is where I really loved Shay and the little plot twists that kept this story moving forward. There is so much going on and I'm so upset that Cremer left us on such a cliffhanger, but at least it'll make me that much more excited for BLOODROSE. Can't wait!



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Ok... I had this post titled as "Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready" for so long now... How embarrassing. Just goes to show you how incredibly busy I was with school at the time. Please forgive my sluggish, studious ways :)